Just look at the further responses in this thread. Almost every negative reaction to this game is wrapped in some variant of "too easy" or the Nemesis System being "broken" or "non-existent". Several people mention that the point of the game is to die, and they didn't die, so they didn't experience the point of the game. I know that that's the GB community way (not meant to be as derogatory as it reads - I just mean the regulars of this forum clearly have a higher aptitude for games than the general public/me), but it's never more clear than people's reaction to this specific game. If you don't die, whether by getting overly zealous in a thrall of orcs or just being inexperienced with the style of play, the game can't develop those micro-stories for you that everyone raved about in the press.

The one criticism I remember being brought up at the time by most media members, besides the drab first area and bland characters/final sequence, was that there were no difficulty options, you just play the game for what it is, and if you're too good for it to pose a challenge to you there's not much to be done about that other than complain or enjoy the power fantasy.

I enjoyed it but I didn't get going for me until the bit where you go after three warchiefs.

I'm a min-maxer and as such the rune system, coupled with the nemesis system, really drew me in.
You can influence the level and type of rune drops by how you kill enemies and how much you "feed them up" through the nemesis system.
Like having an orc kill you on purpose for the nemesis buff (gives +level on the dropped rune) then pebble said orc up by helping him rise through ranks until you pop him for the loot.
With the higher level rare runes you could completely retool how the combat works, allowing you to build different builds of how the character plays even with everything else maxed out.
Had tons of fun just building huge follower groups and taking over the whole nemesis hierarchy several times over, spent like 80+ hours on the game.

For some reason, I started watching Brad and Dan's three quick looks, and wanted to play the game again. GOTY edition not carrying over my previous save was a bummer, but starting over has been pretty enjoyable.

I should say I finish very few open world games, only AC3, Saboteur, Mordor, Andromeda, and BotW. (tried almost every big name game, but couldn't be bothered for any of them). Among those I would say Mordor and BotW are tied for first.

Mordor is very forgiving: stealth is least restricting, disengaging from enemy chases is very easy, time-slowing aim on arrows, death has basically no implications, and healing items/arrows are all over the place. In many ways it has the least things to do, basically just focused on killing orcs, but combat is stylish and fun enough to keep me engaged. I can see for people who played too many games with similar combat, the game would seem tedious. On the flip side it avoids a lot of open world mission types that don't work, like tailing, chasing, escort, or just drive to some location.

If OP has made it this far and not enjoyed, it might be the game for OP (which happens all the time, just look at how many games Jeff hates on). But the best tip I can give is to approach the game as a stealth game that requires planning (like hitman) rather than a combat-focused game (musou?). Don't try to take on too many orcs at the same time. If more and more orcs come swarming in, it's probably time to retreat a bit. Orc captains in the vicinity can be tagged to keep track of their locations. Various distractions can be used to move orcs around. Find openings to isolate your target. Different targets will require different approaches depending on their traits. (or if a few are bunching together, you'll see that certain ones may be easier to take out first) Going in gung-ho can be fun too, but expect everything to go wrong. (When things to go wrong, either resulting in retreat or death, I then have more reason to hunt down every captain that ruined my party.)

I still like the nemesis system a great deal. The randomly generated names can be chanted out if they make warchief. The titles usually imply certain traits even before any other info is revealed. Seeing new armor designs or trait combinations is fun. They make comments about previous encounters (most memorably, one orc noticed me sitting in a tree trying to ambush him, and asked "what are you doing up there?"). For the ones that escaped or cheated death, I make extra sure to chop their heads off next time. After branding is introduced (too late imo), you can plant your own people around every warchief.

Mordor's story is nothing special, but about the same level as BotW, or most other open world games, in my opinion. It's final boss battle is pretty disappointing as well. Coming back to it now the camera is a bit rough. But it's still a top 10 game for me (and it's a type of game that a large panel of people tend to agree on) in any other year. Hopefully all the new stuff added in Shadow of War gel together well.

I enjoyed the nemesis system....and thats it. the story was unendurably dull, the open world was shoddily slapped together, and all the missions felt like side content. I would intentionally let orcs kill me just ot mess around with the nemesis system then sort of gave up around the start of the second world.

I loved it until it became a quick time event, but I hope the sequel is a lot harder so the Nemesis system actually comes into play.